Ruth Padel

Award-winning poet Ruth Padel has been King’s College London Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing, and has taught on Arvon courses for thirty years. Her books 52 Ways of Looking at a Poem and The Poem and the Journey, essential reading on many creative writing courses, came out of her celebrated column on reading poems in the Independent on Sunday. She has won the National Poetry Competition and her twelve collections have been shortlisted for all UK prizes. ‘Generous, painful, tender, gorgeously lyrical’, said Ilya Kaminsky of her recent collection Beethoven Variations. ‘We follow her genius for the music of a man’s story, with heart-breaking beauty and insight.’ See further www.ruthpadel.com